OPENING LINES NEW SAFO OFFERS GUIDANCE TO REDUCE APPROACH RISKS Source: https://nbaa.org/, News Editor, First published April 14th, 2025 A recently released FAA Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) serves as an important reminder for business aircraft flight crews to thoroughly review procedures for challenging approaches. SAFO 25001, “Risks Associated with Visual Approaches,” comes in response to the recent spate of high-profile accidents, incidents and near misses in the National Airspace System (NAS), leading to increased concern among agency officials and operators. According to the SAFO,“As the NAS continues to grow in use and complexity, efforts have been ongoing to prevent unsafe operations such as runway incursions, unstable approaches, altitude and route deviations, and runway identification errors. In light of recent events, the [FAA] identified the need to ensure all operators and pilots understand and evaluate the risks associated with the acceptance and execution of visual approaches.” The SAFO urges flight department managers, operations and training directors and check pilots, among other personnel, to review the importance of maintaining an active visual scan to avoid potential conflicts with other traffic, and increased vigilance while operating at airports with published VFR routes in the vicinity of instrument approach and departure paths. 13 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 12, ISSUE 04
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